In conventional bicycle brakes having a lever connected to a wire which actuates a center-pull or side-pull type brake shoe which is pressed against the rim of the bicycle wheel when the brake is actuated, the clearance between the brake shoe and the rim is very small. This small clearance presents considerable difficulty when it is necessary to remove the bicycle wheel. In order to increase the clearance between the brake shoe and the rim, it is necessary to slacken the wire to thereby release the tension therein whereby the brake shoe can be manually pulled a further distance from the wheel rim.
At one time, it was necessary to disconnect the wire from the brake shoe in order to increase the distance between the brake shoe and the rim; however, the state of the art has progressed to obviate the necessity of disconnecting the brake actuating wire as evidenced by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,176,536 to Altenburger dated Apr. 6, 1965 and 3,596,530 to Yoshigai dated Aug. 3, 1971. The brake operating levers disclosed in these patents include a latch, such as a spring biased detent or a pivotal member, which engages the housing to which the brake operating lever is pivoted whereby the brake lever is maintained in the normal operative position. When the latch is released, the lever is adapted to be pivoted inwardly of the housing to thereby slacken the brake actuating cable.
The brake operating lever of the present invention is an improvement over the brake operating levers of the type shown in the above-noted Altenburger and Yoshigai patents in that the pivotal connection between the brake lever and the housing in which it is mounted is constructed and arranged such that the lever is movable from an operative position to an inoperative position to slacken the brake cable, thus, the pivotal connection provides the two-fold function of providing the pivotal connection for the normal operation of the brake lever, and a release connection whereby the lever is movable to the inoperative position to thereby slacken the cable.